Michelle Wilmot with her 20-month-old daughter, Iselda Brookfield, in Las Vegas, where she lives. She is moving to San Diego next month.

Michelle Wilmot with her 20-month-old daughter, Iselda Brookfield, in Las Vegas, where she lives. She is moving to San Diego next month.

Photo: Michelle Wilmot

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michelle wilmot artwork

michelle wilmot artwork

Photo: Michelle Wilmot

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michelle wilmot artwork

michelle wilmot artwork

Photo: Michelle Wilmot

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Combat veterans' art opens dialogue on war

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"A loud and sharp ringing in my ears took place as I had begun to quake in anger as tears streamed down my cheek. This pitiful 'ethnic' cheek. I wasn't a person after all. I was simply this exotic thing for people to observe and investigate, an alien in any environment I was in. Never mind my character, personality or interests; the first questions from most people in my unit were regarding my ethnicity. Who was I and where was I really from as I couldn't really be an American."

"What has become of me? I've become a cornered animal, but I was accustomed to seeing death, combat, and suffering. I no longer saw myself in the mirror or in my mind the same way. I have been cheated out of having a decent military career. I have been cheated out of being treated like a human being. In my reflection, I saw an empty vessel. They had cheated me and I was desperate to make the sharp pain in my head stop."

Field medic in Iraq turns to art, writing

Her story began as a familiar one: A student with the ambition to go to college but not the money. Wilmot graduated from Encinal High School in Alameda and joined the Army, where she trained as a field medic and mental health counselor. In 2004, while in Iraq, she volunteered for Team Lioness, a female combat unit.

The other soldiers didn't question her courage but they challenged her Pacific Islander ethnicity - she didn't look "American." When she returned to the U.S., her ethnicity wasn't an issue as much as her role as a soldier. "A lot of what is in the media about the military is about sexual trauma," Wilmot said. "Rape is more palatable to (Americans) than a woman serving in combat. That women are able to defend themselves, able to kill, that is just not part of the gender stereotype."

She landed a scholarship to study art in Prague and found an outlet for her anger. "Painting allows me to not say a thing (verbally) but to say exactly what I want," she said. In 2007, she started writing, five or 10 pages at a time, about her war experiences. See her art at www.thedesertwarrior.com. Read an excerpt from her 356-page book, "Quixote in Ramadi," at right.